Day 1: Just Getting Started

Ahh, the sight of the lascivious brick-red Parisian clay- nothing tops the start of your favorite grandslam event of the year. Another calm day in tennis-haven - no upsets, everything went well on paper and best of all Tommy Robredo is on fire!

Last year, this time around, me and a certain bono-fan were plotting death-threats to the young Spaniard, who had deminished our hopes of seeing Marat Safin clinch the cup (though I'm pretty sure Nadal would have stopped him any way). After 11 months and 2 weeks of extreme hate, we put last years match behind us and embraced the growing phenomenon that is senor Robredo. Maybe it was the ATP blog, or maybe just the heart-tugging way he breezed his path through to the Hamburg silverware- whichever, ladies and gentlemen, Tommy Robredo has landed. And the current form he's in, it seems like an easy ticket to week 2. Not only did he annihilate Zib to Zilch today, he did it without breaking into a sweat. Definitely the most effortless win of the day, easily getting 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.

Federer started rough, being 0-3 done the first set to lucky loser Diego Hartfield - and though it could be argued that Hartfield was hitting all his worth, having no expectations from the match, hence no tensing his hit sin the least - we tend to ignore the fact it could have gone the other way: big occasion, the world's, perhaps history's, best player staring down at you and playing your first ever grandslam match, and that on center court. Though, I must admit, at no point in the match did I ever believe Roger was in any trouble, the scoreline was a hefty 7-5 7-6(2) 6-2. Good job to Hartfield (but what is with all these hair-buns in the men's tour!? I want to sue!)

Sharapova, sans obsessive family member, seemed rather uncomfortable on court, breezing through the first set, but losing momentum in the second, and having to gruel it out to the third to Mashona Washington. She's still up to her mind games, I see, calling injury timeouts at crucial moments - but we won't be as unfair enough to associate her success today to a measly restrapping. No we'll give it to her, she won it on her own. Can't say I'm cahoots about the ballerina outfit, though.

tomorrow's matches of note:
Sebastian Grosjean (FRA)[21] vs. Andrei Pavel (ROM)
Robin Soderling (SWE) vs. Rafael Nadal (ESP)[2]
Venus Williams (USA)[11] vs. Sybille Bammer (AUT)
Michael Llodra (FRA) vs. Radek Stepanek (CZE)[11]
James Blake (USA)[8] vs. Paradorn Srichaphan (THA)
Xavier Malisse (BEL) vs. Nicolas Massu (CHI)[32]
Tomas Berdych (CZE)[20] vs. Feliciano Lopez (ESP)